Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope everybody is having a wonderful holiday. Please enjoy this re-post from Christmas Day 2009; I like this magazine so much (this is the third re-broadcasting of this post) you can consider it a new Christmas tradition here on the blog.

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Today we have a special Christmas Edition of Magazine Monday. From December 1957 it’s Family Circle Magazine. This issue features an amazing 12 page article “Especially for Children, a Christmas Story about St. Francis” as told byMary Martinand Visualized by Walt Disney and staff.

“The Little Lame Lamb, a story of Saint Frances of Assisi and the first Nativity Scene” is a wonderful Christmas season story, it’s worth taking the time to read it in its entirety. And as you’ll see, the artwork is top notch, wouldn’t it be amazing to own some of the originals?

Now presented in order, in high resolution and without further interruption, “The Little Lame Lamb”, enjoy.

Oh boy would I like to get this record! I bet the 12 page booklet has all the same artwork as this article just like Family Circle December 1958 and the “Christmas at Disneyland LP”. This must be a shorter story than Christmas at Disneyland as its all on one 45. If I had this record of course you’d be hearing here on the blog.

Before we get to some wonderful vintage holiday advertisements, Family Circle has a memo to its readers. Can you imagine it, they are raising the price of each issue to ten cents?

The ingredients of this fruit cake, minus the fruit, nuts and raisins, sound pretty good. No baking? Chill for two days? What kind of commie cake is this?

That Cookie House looks so yummy! Check out that cool Cookie Carnival Carrousel!

“Working together to bring people together” and working to keep our monopoly on the telephone industry.

Fruit Nog, Yummy?

“Soft and smooth as linen”. Gotta love that Polka dot box!

These last three advertisements aren’t holiday related but I couldn’t resist sharing. Three of these sauces look excellent, I’ll let you guess which one I’ll pass on.

Some things never change (thank goodness). You’ll find a box or two of Lipton's Chicken Noodle Soup in my cupboard, how about yours? That glass soup pan on the electric burner looks so cool!

Well… This is a family magazine and its 1957 so this must be acceptable to show on my blog. “She dreamed she was lost in a London Fog”, maybe she was dreaming because she was being held and molded by her “talented bra… in the prettiest possible lines”… Was Maidenform a Division of Cadillac in 1957?

Saturday, December 24, 2011

From December 1958 we’ve got Family Circle Magazine. This issue features the tale of “A Christmas Adventure in Disneyland”. The Disneyland story covers eleven pages and has poems and song lyrics accompanying it.

As you can see my copy of this Magazine is not only old and faded, but appears to have some decent water damage as well. And naturally the Disneyland article has the worse damage!

Rather than present dull, faded, stained pages, I just so happen to have the same story as told via a 1958Disneyland Record. This grand LP included a full size booklet in between the covers and has held up remarkably well for 51 years.

The inside cover describes what’s on the record.

How about listening to the record as you follow along reading the story? I recorded each side of the LP, the files are below. No video this time, I discovered you get much better sound quality when you connect the stereo directly to the computer. That said, this record is 51 years old and has its share of pops & scratches.

The narration is a bit annoying, with the worse Mr. Toad impression I’ve ever heard. However, the record is fun to listen to. You MUST check out the song “Jingle Bones” at 10:30 on side one, classic late ‘50’s Disney at its best.

The 11 pages of the story are below. They are posted without interruption, my only comments are; WOW – amazing artwork and Gee- what a neat story. Merry Christmas!

Some of the other “Story Teller” series of Disneyland Records available in 1958. I have few of these, most are fairly rare including this one.

Now back to the magazine. These sets of pages represent all things Christmas in 1958. Each of these five articles is spread over two pages. I did a decent job of stitching them together but you will notice color variations on each of the two pages. It appears to have been printed that way or half the pages faded more than the other half.

A hearthside supper for your tree-trimmers.

A cheery welcome – check out that snack cart, yummy!

This marvelous buffet includes a “Chicken-cranberry Mold” yuck…

“Cooky fantasies to charm children” Those cookies mounted on the wall are not for human consumption, I know this for a fact…

Sugar Dandies indeed!

"Stockings to treasure” – paging Kevin Kidney.

How about some vintage holiday time advertisements? Up first a classy lady for Pepsi, nice hat – especially created by Sally Victor for Pepsi.